Mosquitos

[Jason64]

There seems to be a lot of Mosquitos around the last few days, more than normal, is there a reason why?

[Tim]

Far fewer wasps this year, though. Round here, anyway ....

[filippos]

There seems to be a lot of Mosquitos around the last few days, more than normal, is there a reason why?

Could be something to do with the fact it's suddenly become much damper.

[chrissyg]

Seems quite random. The first few years that i had holidays in Crete ( spring, summer, autumn) there were NO mosquitos and i thought it was amazing and that maybe we were lucky in the area we stayed in. In the last few years , since deciding to buy here, i have seen loads of them and last year i got so badly bitten ( in August) i still have scars on my arms and legs. Since then i have been ultra careful, but i noticed loads of them in May. And wasps too! Here in the UK we have had a bumper year for wasps, and hornets, due to the long intense heatwave or so they say. I really hate them all!!!

[Mixos]

Never mind wasps or mozzies, I've never seen so many cockroaches around... the cats are having a fine old time chasing them down. Didn't I read somewhere that they would survive even a "nuclear winter?" Oh dear.

[filippos]

A blast from our anti-roach aerosol deals with them if we get to them in time as they're inclined to disappear quickly. Oddly enough we seem to have had fewer this year.

[Mixos]

They must all be down our end of the island then filippos. I've just read on the internet that a fine spray of ordinary soapy water is a good roach killer. Who knew?

[chrissyg]

Wow, never knew about roaches, only ever seen them in India! Last time here i saw this really massive caterpiller thing, whitish with a blue patch on one end, about 6 inches long and 2 inches wide. Very scary.what was that??

[Eleni13]

Rather than chemical sprays, cucumber peel worked on cockroaches in Florida. Just saying.

[chrissyg]

Interesting, is there a natural deterrent or humane way of killing those disgusting millipede things that climb up the walls in october?

[Mixos]

Ah, you mean the " curly-wurlies " aka " stink worms " that seem to just emerge from the walls? They smell revolting if crushed and the birds and cats won't touch them, so I guess they are pretty toxic. Brushing them into a dustpan and dropping them into the scrub down the road does the trick for us.

[altohb]

Back to mosquitoes - I've been bitten more in the last couple of weeks than all summer. I guess the wind has been blowing them in!

[BST]

Never seen a cockroach here! Not complaining Wasps pretty much gone since the rain, thank goodness!

[margarita]

Rather than chemical sprays, cucumber peel worked on cockroaches in Florida. Just saying.

Eleni, I am intrigued as to what do do with the cucumber peel. Do you leave it around and it scares the cockroaches away, do you grind it up and feed it to the cockroaches and it kills them? Or what?

[filippos]

My guess is that Eleni strips off a length of cucumber peel and runs round trying to swat the roaches with it.